A new growth blueprint San Diego officials are proposing would transform the northeast corner of Pacific Beach from an auto-oriented commercial corridor into a dense residential village surrounding the new Balboa Avenue trolley station. The plan, which the City Council is expected to consider this...

San Diego Councilwoman Monica Montgomery, a vocal critic of the city’s Police Department on issues such as racial profiling and violence against civilians, will lead the council’s law enforcement oversight panel next year. Montgomery, a liberal Democrat from southeastern San Diego who has worked...

Early next month, the longest serving Republican in San Diego’s congressional delegation will quietly step away from the House of Representatives. For Republicans in the 49th District, which stretches from La Jolla to Dana Point in south Orange County, the transition marks the end of an era of...

More Politics & Government

Following months of controversy and sexual harassment allegations, San Diego labor titan Mickey Kasparian lost his bid Friday for president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135. Kasparian was once a powerful political kingpin in San Diego, leading Local 135 since 2003 and previously...

Officials are scrambling to stabilize the crumbling Del Mar bluffs, with four collapses having occurred since August. Emergency efforts to reinforce the eroding cliffs, atop which Amtrak and Coaster trains run daily, have been in the works for nearly a year. Now officials say they hope to break...

San Diego is trying to boost tax revenue from the city’s dozen legal marijuana dispensaries by auditing them and tightening restrictions on sales to medical cannabis patients, which are tax-exempt. The audits, which are expected to conclude this month, aim to ensure the dispensaries are complying...

While a ruptured pipe in Mexico continues to spill sewage into the Tijuana River, federal officials said that as of Friday morning the effluent was being captured at the border and diverted to a wastewater treatment facility. Over the last few days, efforts to remove sediment and debris from pumps...

South Bay community leaders won a legal victory this week in their campaign to block conversion of a run-down motel near Imperial Beach into a drug-treatment facility for homeless people. A Superior Court judge ruled the city of San Diego can’t move forward with the project without getting approval...

Transit officials agreed Thursday to scale back a proposed fare hike on seniors and disabled riders as part of the first overhaul to ticket prices on buses, trolleys and trains in more than a decade. The adjustments are aimed at helping to address a roughly $10 million annual budget shortfall and...

Circulation in San Diego’s 36-branch library system is up 24 percent since city officials on July 1 eliminated fines for returning items late, but the data are likely skewed by an “automatic renewal” policy implemented last January. When items aren’t returned on time, library officials shifted...

San Diego’s recent acceleration of efforts to bury utility lines across the city continued this week with the City Council approving $175 million to bury lines in nine neighborhoods. The affected neighborhoods are Mission Beach, Kensington, Normal Heights, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, Clairemont...

A sewage spill that federal officials said started Monday night south of the border continues to flood the Tijuana River with millions of gallons of raw effluent. A ruptured collector pipe in southeast Tijuana is leaking roughly 7 million gallons a day of sewage into the river, according to the...

Despite indicating earlier this year that he would step down from his longtime post as chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County, Tony Krvaric will serve another term. Krvaric, one of the party’s most influential figures locally and a prolific fundraiser, was re-elected by the party’s...

Politics & Government

San Diego’s chronic police officer shortage is prompting the city to lure officers from elsewhere with signing bonuses, and to pay finder’s fees to San Diego officers who successfully recruit new colleagues. The new programs, which the City Council unanimously approved on Tuesday, are the latest...

The region’s top transportation planner is calling for a massive investment in public transit — with the aim of making bus, trolley and commuter rail services competitive with driving. The vision would be a dramatic shift from today, with the region’s sluggish mass-transit system mostly serving...

Democrat Georgette Gomez of City Heights was unanimously elected on Monday to the pivotal post of San Diego City Council President, which will allow her to set the council’s priorities and appoint the leaders of key committees. Gomez will lead a council where Democrats increased their majority...

Dr. Jennifer Campbell, one of three new members joining the San Diego City Council on Monday, will bring to City Hall the perspective of a scientist who avoided politics most of her life despite coming from a heavily political family. Campbell, 73, knocked on doors as a toddler for President Harry...

Vivian Moreno, one of three new members joining the San Diego City Council on Monday, will bring to her new job eight years of experience at City Hall, expertise in border issues and a commitment to the basics. Moreno is replacing her boss for the last eight years, termed-out Democrat David Alvarez,...

After more than a decade of inaction, elected officials throughout the region now appear serious about connecting transit lines to the San Diego International Airport. Elected officials from around the county voted unanimously on Friday at a San Diego Association of Governments board meeting to...

Civil rights lawyer Monica Montgomery, one of three new members joining the San Diego City Council on Monday, says it’s time for new perspectives and policies at City Hall on neglected neighborhoods, racial profiling and many other issues. Montgomery, who will be the nine-member council’s only...

Despite a scare post-Election Day, incumbent Republican Assemblyman Brian Maienschein has held on to defeat Democrat Sunday Gover in the closest contest of his political career. With all the ballots counted and the result certified Thursday by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, Maienschein...

San Diego City Council members voted 7-2 on Tuesday to approve a $400,000-per-year naming rights deal that will change the name of the city’s sports arena to Pechanga Arena San Diego. The council members voting against the deal, Chris Ward of University Heights and David Alvarez of Logan Heights,...

San Diego approved $2.3 million on Tuesday to connect two bicycle paths near Carmel Valley, a project that would close a crucial missing link in the regional network of cycling paths that local governments are trying to create. The state Department of Transportation will contribute another $1.5...

San Diego’s sports arena would become Pechanga Arena San Diego under a new $400,000-per-year naming rights deal with Temecula’s Pechanga Resort and Casino. The deal, which the San Diego City Council is scheduled to approve on Tuesday, would replace an expiring naming rights pact with Valley View...

The Balboa and Mission Bay municipal golf facilities continue to lose money for the city of San Diego’s golf division, which also faces increasing costs for water and personnel. The golf division continues to turn annual profits overall thanks to revenue generated by two courses at Torrey Pines,...

The passing late Friday of George H. W. Bush — the American fighter pilot, war hero and 41st president of the United States — brought a wave of respect and remembrances from San Diego politicians and others fortunate enough to have met him. They heralded his humility and genuineness, recounting...

After meeting with advocates for asylum seekers and visiting an immigration detention center Thursday, Governor-elect Gavin Newsom spoke of the need for greater urgency and support from the state, local and federal governments in addressing the current humanitarian crisis at the border. “It goes...

A leading earthquake expert says San Diego should consider accelerating replacement of aging water pipes and completing a comprehensive inventory of local buildings, especially structures made of unreinforced brick. While San Diego faces less risk of a major earthquake than Los Angeles or San Francisco,...

Management errors by San Diego city officials have delayed a crucial upgrade to software for tracking development projects and sharply increased the cost of the upgrade, a new audit says. The cost of San Diego’s switch from an in-house project tracking system to the popular Accela tracking software...

North Park business leaders saved the community’s annual holiday parade from cancellation on Wednesday with a last-minute pledge of $10,000, preventing the end of a 55-year tradition that will take place this Saturday as scheduled. The move came one day after parade organizer Victoria House announced...

Top air quality officials in California currently have no way to fully assess whether regions from San Diego to Sacramento are on track to meet 2020 targets for reining in greenhouse gases associated with daily driving. That’s according to a highly anticipated report from the California Air Resources...

EDCO is doubling the size of its Barrio Logan recycling facility to help San Diego meet the goals of its climate action and “zero waste” plans, which require sharp reductions in how much trash the city puts in landfills. The recycling facility, located just west of Interstate 5 and a few blocks...

Homeless people living in recreational vehicles are still being ticketed in San Diego despite a federal injunction blocking one kind of enforcement, prompting advocacy groups to launch a program that helps fight the tickets with sophisticated appeals. San Diego police have obeyed the federal judge’s...

San Diego’s local supply chain for its marijuana dispensaries is quickly taking shape, but approvals for indoor pot farms and edible factories are becoming more contentious as the city nears a cap it set of allowing 40 such businesses. The city has awarded permits to nearly 30 marijuana production...

After the Camp Fire obliterated the town of Paradise this month in California’s most horrific wildfire to date, everyone from President Trump to Gov. Jerry Brown raised concerns about the state’s overgrown and drought-stricken forests. Both administrations called for a significant increase in logging...

1890s: Loggers have already started to complain that the Sierra Nevada could be significantly more productive for timber harvesting if wildfire were suppressed. 1905: U.S. Forest Service is formed, unifying a number of forest agencies. Rangers’ responsibilities largely included mapping and administering...

Because of the fierce wildfires that have devastated parts of California, everybody seems to be seeking the cause. What did you find reporting this In-Depth story? What’s not under debate is why wildfire start. Recent studies have found that most, as much as 85 percent or higher, wildfires are...

Nearby residents say a 20-story apartment building proposed for Bankers Hill is too tall, would damage neighborhood character and cast shadows on a prime part of Balboa Park. Supporters say the 223-foot, 204-unit building would help solve San Diego’s housing crisis and help the city meet goals...

San Diego residents can sound off about drone use, including plans to start having the unmanned flying machines make food deliveries, transport medical samples to hospitals and provide assistance to police and firefighters at emergency scenes. City officials recently launched a 25-question online...

Facing steep budget shortfalls over the next three years, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is asking all city departments to propose 3 percent spending cuts that could be implemented immediately. This is the third winter in a row that Faulconer has requested proposed spending reductions, but the...

A successful Nov. 6 ballot measure that doubles pay for San Diego’s mayor and City Council members will attract a broader pool of better-qualified candidates who are likely to be older and more mature, local political scientists said last week. While some have criticized the measure for spiking...

Crumbling sidewalks and millions of dollars in injury lawsuit payouts are prompting San Diego to explore drastic action, potentially including a requirement that property owners fix nearby damaged sidewalks before they can sell. Other proposals include property liens, waiving permit fees to encourage...

Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange County’s undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the state’s six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros’...